Life & Work with Olivia Baker

Today we’d like to introduce you to Olivia Baker.

Hi Olivia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I’m from Budapest, Hungary, and Birmingham, Alabama. So yeah, I’m culturally confused. During the Cold War, my dad was getting into shenanigans with the neighborhood kids and working as a milkman for the family business in Alabama, while on the other side of the iron curtain, my mom was helping smuggle bibles in from the west and being followed around by Russian secret police to make sure she did not step out of line in the eyes of  “The Party.”

Eventually, my dad went undercover to work with a non-profit in Hungary, met my mom, and the rest is history. So, I grew up back and forth between Southern summers of four-wheeling and fishing, and playing soccer and having snowball fights in the schoolyard in newly independent Hungary the rest of the year. I don’t remember, so don’t take my word for it, but I’m told I sang before I could talk. I’m also told I danced before I could walk, but if you saw me in the club or a Zumba class today, you would be as skeptical of that story as I am. The singing, however, stuck.

Stage, train or church, you could find me singing to strangers and friends alike. One thing you could never find me doing is crafts. I was terrible. Still am. So to compensate, I started writing little poems for my holiday gift-giving instead. I fell in love with prose and poetry. Eventually, I realized that my love for writing and music could be combined, and after a brief middle school rap phase, I picked up a guitar freshman year of high school and started writing songs I could play.

My love for creating and performing music led me to move to the United States and pursue a degree in music in Grand Rapids, Michigan, followed by an internship in Nashville, TN. I fell in love with Music City and was ready to escape the humanly unsurvivable low temperatures of a Michigan winter, so I made Nashville home and never left.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road, but that’s just a part of the journey. Being far from my family in Hungary, and having to miss major family events has been one of the sacrifices of pursuing a career in music in the U.S. This, along with the pressure I put on myself to succeed and other circumstantial factors, have had negative effects on my mental health. I have gone through seasons of anxiety and depression. My next single is an honest look at that part of my journey.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Shortly after moving to Nashville, I released my first EP, “Scatter Hearted” produced by Jake Rye (Michigander, Sanctus Real) and toured around the Midwest and Southeast. I also joined the bus tour of another band that gave me the opportunity to promote the record around Central Europe. The single from that album, ‘Smalltown’ was a finalist in GrammyU’s 2016 songwriting competition. It was also placed on a radio commercial that aired all over the south in 2017-2018.

I met Gena Johnson (Chris Stapleton, Lady Gaga, Brandi Carlile, John Prine) at a party for a studio in Berry Hill. An organic connection formed and we started working together shortly after. March 2021, I released my new single “My Coffee, My Wine,” produced, mixed and engineered by Gena, featuring Philip Towns (Anderson East) on keys and mellotron. The next single will be out in the New Year, and I will be doing a crowd fundraiser in the Spring to finish the record.

While my Hungarian mom encouraged my music education from a young age, supported my desire for piano lessons, involvement in a professional musical theatre studio, children’s choirs, Hungarian folk singing competitions, etc., my dad shaped what I was listening to. We would listen to Miles Davis and Norah Jones, and then switch it up with a Beatles or Eagles record, and of course, Lynyrd Skynyrd, because, he is after all, from Alabama.

Norah Jones is still one of my biggest influences, along with The Civil Wars and The Head and the Heart. My sound can be described as Indie Singer/Songwriter, that sometimes leans pop, sometimes folk, Americana.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Perseverance. There have been, and will be, off days. Failures. But it’s about not giving up when you feel like it. Instead, remember why you’re doing it.

If your “why” is a cause that’s bigger than you- like for me it’s to help people not feel alone in their struggles, but make them feel loved and sing songs that are real but filled with hope at the same time- then that kind of thing will keep you going more than any self-fulfillment would.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: http://www.oliviabakermusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliviabakermusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OliviaBakerMusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa66bBF_RwGwdQyDMqmXBvA/videos
• Other: https://oliviabakermusic.fanlink.to/gc5W

Image Credits
David Bean, Gena Johnson, Robert Hubbard, Derek Beistad, and Genea Butler